The Lost Fleet: Into the Darkness Page 16

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  Fleet Admiral Nagumo was at New Tellus Station still fuming from his meeting with the Federation Council. President Malle had asked him to present the evidence to the council of the threat the Simulins posed.

  He had been pressed by the senators from Serenity and Bliss whether any Simulin vessels had been detected in the galaxy. He’d been forced to admit they had not. Then Senator Davis from Bliss demanded to know when the last time a Simulin vessel was spotted in the galaxy. Stone faced, Nagumo had admitted it had been several thousand years. In the end, the vote was close but the measure to prepare for a Simulin invasion had been voted down.

  “Bureaucrats,” he mumbled, tossing back a stiff drink and staring across his office at a picture taken of the beaches on New Tellus.

  “We’re not all assholes,” responded Senator Amy Karnes with a grin. “Some of us actually want what’s best for the Federation and our allies.”

  “Sorry,” Nagumo replied as he filled his glass a second time from the bottle on his desk. He picked the bottle up and then placed it in the bottom drawer. He very seldom drank but he was infuriated at the council.

  “If the Simulins come through as Admiral Tolsen believes they will, it’ll be the start of an intergalactic war,” Amy said in a calm voice. “The council will have no choice but to respond to the threat.”

  Nagumo left his glass on his desk, stood up and walked over to a large viewscreen focused on the command asteroid fortress. It was twenty-two kilometers in diameter with the Command Center located at its heart. The asteroid was honeycombed with passages and power plants. It took a crew of twenty thousand to operate the massive fortress and its intricate systems and weapons. Nagumo would give anything if Admiral Tolsen had something like that to hold back the Simulins.

  “I suppose you’ve seen the communiqué from former Fleet Admiral Streth that’s been floating around in some circles of the military and the political establishment?” asked Nagumo, still gazing at the viewscreen.

  “Possibly,” Amy said evasively.

  “It’s riled a few people,” Nagumo said as he turned back around to face the senator. “Not in the military, but a few of the higher ups with deep political connections.” He knew Senator Karnes had been one of the recipients of the fleet admiral’s message. “It’s not like it was six or seven years ago when he was leading our fleets against the AIs and the Hocklyns. Several times he called the bluff of the council and got what he wanted. He’s a living legend and could get by with things I can’t even consider.”

  “Will you help him?” Amy asked, her eyes focusing intently on the fleet admiral. “I believe I can guarantee enough votes in the council to prevent your removal as fleet admiral if things go south.”

  “What are you willing to do?” asked Nagumo. He knew they should be readying the fleet for possible war, but the council was being too close-minded over this threat.

  “Whatever is necessary,” Amy replied in a steady voice. “New Tellus was settled by people from the old Human Federation of Worlds. We owe our lives to the fleet admiral. If he’s asking for aid, we’re honor bound to send it.”

  “It’ll be risky,” Nagumo said, returning to his chair and sitting down.

  “Politics is always risky,” Amy responded with a wry smile. “I can stand the fire if it comes my way.”

  Nagumo nodded. Senator Karnes had always been an outspoken senator and ardent supporter of the fleet. “I’ll make calls and speak to some people. There may be a few things we can do that won’t raise too many eyebrows.”

  “Fleet Admiral, you should know Fleet Admiral Streth has already set some plans into motion,” Amy ventured cautiously.

  Nagumo laughed and smiled. “I suppose you mean the repair of the AI capacitor stations?”

  “How?” Amy stammered surprised. A lot of effort had gone into keeping the repair of the second and possibly third capacitor station a secret.

  “You didn’t think I’d know what was going on when one of my admirals takes his fleet to the galactic center without orders from me?”

  Amy didn’t reply; she merely gazed questionably at the fleet admiral.

  “I trust Admiral Tolsen’s judgment in this matter, that’s why a few additional warships have been sent his direction. Not as many as I would’ve liked, but still enough to sizably increase the strength of his fleet. I also placed it in the records that I sent the fleet there on a special mission.”

  “What about Fleet Admiral Streth’s plan?”

  “A relief fleet sent to the Triangulum Galaxy to wage war against the Simulins,” Nagumo said carefully, his eyes narrowing sharply. “Some will say we’ll be starting the war.”

  “We won’t be starting a war, we’ll be saving the galaxy,” Amy said firmly.

  Nagumo nodded. He had work to do if he was to send any ships to aid Admiral Strong and Rear Admiral Barnes. If he was careful, he wouldn’t violate any regulations and the Senate Council wouldn’t know what he’d done until it was too late. He was taking a risk with his career, but he trusted Senator Karnes to come to his aid if needed. There were a number of ships in the reserve fleet, which could easily be brought back into service. He was also fairly certain he could find the personnel to crew them.

  -

  At the galactic center, work was continuing on the three capacitor stations. With the aid of the Alton battleships, the third capacitor station had been moved closer to the other two. It had taken delicate work using the tractor beams the battleships were equipped with, but adjustments had been made to substantially increase its orbital speed with four of the battleships staying in close proximity so course adjustments could be done as needed. Now all three stations were close to one another and work crews had begun major repairs to the third station.

  Race had been surprised at the number of Federation warships that continued to trickle in. He wasn’t sure how long he could keep them at the black hole until they were ordered to return to their patrol routes.

  “What of the relief fleets?” asked Commander Arnett. The two were in a shuttle inbound to Capacitor Station One for a meeting with the Alton and human scientists working on the project.

  Race gazed out the viewport. It still concerned him being so close to the black hole, but their distance and orbital velocity kept them safe. “I’ve received commitments from Careth, New Providence, and Ceres. The fleet will make transit in four months. There may also be a fleet from New Tellus, but that’s a little questionable.”

  “Can we be ready by then?”

  “We have to be,” Race replied as the shuttle began docking to the massive capacitor station. “The Simulins must be forced to focus on their galaxy and not ours. Only by attacking them there can we guarantee that. By now, Jeremy has pulled his ships into the nebula and won’t be venturing back out. He just doesn’t have the people. It’s up to us to change that.”

  “Will Admiral Strong fight?” asked Madelyn. “They’ll still be vastly outnumbered.”

  “Jeremy will fight,” Race said with a vicious grin. “Give him the ships and crews and he’ll kick the hell out of the Simulins.”

  -

  After docking, they made their way to a conference room set up for the meeting. Shay, Pelel, Admiral Victell, and several other Altons were present as well as a few human engineers.

  “Admiral Tolsen,” greeted Admiral Victell, stepping forward and shaking Race’s hand.

  After greeting the others, everyone sat down and looked at Race expectantly.

  “The relief fleets will be going through the vortex in four months,” he announced.

  “Four months!” spoke Shay in surprise. “We can’t be ready in four months. Capacitor Station Three is too heavily damaged.”

  “I’m assigning additional repair crews from our ships,” Race told her. “We don’t need to repair the entire station, just get as many energy collector dishes as possible online.”

  Pelel looked over at Race with a frown on his face. “At best, we can have it no bet
ter than twenty to twenty-five percent operational. It’ll take years to repair the heavier damaged areas of the station.”

  “That’ll be sufficient,” answered Race. “Once we send the relief fleets through we won’t need the capacitor stations again.”

  “What?” Shay said with confusion covering her face. “Why not?”

  “Because of this,” answered Race, sliding a computer flash drive over to Pelel. “The Alton scientists at Astral have come up with a solution to prevent the Simulins from being able to open an intergalactic vortex into our galaxy.”

  Pelel took the flash drive and inserted it into his handheld computer pad. He scanned the data as his face turned white. “They can’t be serious,” he stammered, looking up at Race.

  “Yes,” Race replied. “Once the relief fleet has gone through, we’ll recharge the three capacitor stations and move them into the area of weakened space. Once all three are in position we’ll detonate the stations, releasing all of their energy in one massive burst. It will not only tear a hole in the fabric of regular space, it’ll also rupture hyperspace in the vicinity.”

  “If the Simulins attempt to come through they’ll be thrown so violently out of hyperspace it will destroy their vessels,” Pelel said as he studied the data.

  “It’ll also make it impossible for them to change the exit vortex to another point in our galaxy,” Race explained. “The rupture in hyperspace will act as a magnet for any intergalactic vortex and the amount of energy to counter that is nearly incomprehensible. It would take an energy collection system far greater than what the AIs built here. With the relief fleets we’re sending Admiral Strong, he’ll see to it they can’t build the necessary energy stations to accomplish that.”

  “That means there’ll be no future missions to the Triangulum Galaxy or even a way to send message drones,” commented Admiral Victell. “We’ll be trapping our fleets in that galaxy with no way to ever come home or send a message.”

  Pelel nodded his agreement at the assessment. “This sounds like an effective way to seal off our galaxy, at least temporarily, from the Simulins. However, keep in mind we’re assuming they have no massive power source.”

  “Based on the technology level we’ve observed in the data sent by Admiral Strong, the scientists on Astral feel confident the Simulins have no power source of that magnitude,” Race responded.

  Race knew the day he carried out the destruction of the stations would be one that would haunt him forever. He would be permanently marooning the Lost Fleets, the Distant Horizon, and the relief fleets in the Simulin galaxy. There would be no way for them to ever come home or for the Federation to know the outcome of the war in the Triangulum Galaxy.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jeremy let out a deep breath of frustration. It would take another two months for all the damage to the Distant Horizon to be repaired. It would also require the use of two of their four fleet repair ships for the entire time period. The exploration dreadnought had suffered much more damage than originally believed. Looking at one of the main viewscreens on the front wall of the Command Center, Jeremy could see the ship in orbit above Gaia. It was currently docked to the Clan Protector. Two fleet repair ships hovered nearby and he could see the bright flashes of welding arcs and torches as the damaged parts of the hull were cut away. New hull plates were being built in the shipyard since the battle armor on the exploration dreadnought was thicker than that of the other warships.

  “Clarissa says there was a brief moment when they all expected to die,” Ariel said from Jeremy’s side.

  The AI was in her standard dark blue uniform without insignia. Her trim, lithe figure was that of a woman in her early twenties. Ariel considered making her appearance that of an older, more mature woman, but she was hesitant to make any changes to her appearance.

  Jeremy reached forward on his command console and the view on the screen was magnified until the Distant Horizon filled the screen. On the hull of the battered ship, dozens of spider robots were busy at work repairing minor hull breaches and scorched areas where the hull had been exposed to high temperatures from the Simulins’ energy weapons and antimatter missiles.

  “There’s a lot of interior damage to the bow,” Ariel continued as she examined the full damage report. Any lesser ship would have been destroyed from the destruction ravaged upon the vessel by the Simulins. “All of her bow weapons are going to have to be repaired or rebuilt. There was an energy beam hit to the stern in the area of the sublight engines. The engines weren’t damaged but many of the control linkages and power couplings were either smashed or burned away.”

  “Eighty-seven dead with another ninety-four injured,” Jeremy said.

  He didn’t know what he would have done if either Kelsey or Katie had been hurt. They’d been back for several weeks now and it still pained him to think about how close they had come to losing the ship.

  “They’re going to try to put an ion cannon on the bow of the ship,” Ariel added as she studied the weapons that were going to be installed. She knew Jeremy felt horrible about the danger he’d put the exploration dreadnought in.

  “Some of the Alton scientists and technicians believe they can make it work after studying the blueprints Andram turned over to them,” Jeremy said. “They just don’t have what we need to create a miniaturized version like the defense globes the Distant Horizon originally had. I would love to have several hundred of those in the defense grid around Gaia.”

  “Those defense globes allowed the exploration dreadnought to survive until we got there,” Commander Kyla Malen commented as she stepped over closer to Jeremy and Ariel. “The ion beams they generated played havoc with the Simulins’ energy shields.”

  “Grayseth and Daelthon want to place some ion cannons upon the Clan Protector as well,” Ariel added. She focused her dark eyes upon Kyla. “With the weapons they are currently installing on the mobile shipyard and the addition of half a dozen ion cannons, Daelthon’s command will be a hard nut to crack.”

  Jeremy smiled at Ariel’s comment. Sometimes she sounded so human. “The battlecruiser Gaia is out of the construction bays and is undergoing her trials. Commander Newman is quite pleased with his new command.”

  “He should be,” Kyla said with a jealous smile. “She’s the most powerful battlecruiser in our fleet.”

  Ariel was smiling, and then the smile on her face faded abruptly. “Jeremy,” she said in a strained and deeply concerned voice. “You need to get over to the Clan Protector; there’s been a development.”

  “What is it?” He turned, seeing the strange look on the AI’s face.

  “Daelthon’s people were removing the wreckage from an interior section of the Distant Horizon and they’ve found something.”

  “What?” asked Jeremy, feeling confused. He couldn’t imagine why they would need his presence.

  “They’ve found some type of Simulin apparatus Ariel replied. Her eyes took on a deep and serious look. “Mikow and Andram have briefly examined it and they believe it’s some type of tracking device.”

  Jeremy’s face turned pale at the ramifications. If this was indeed a tracking device, had it revealed to the Simulins where the Lost Fleets were hiding?”

  “Get my shuttle ready,” he ordered. “I want Rear Admiral Barnes, Rear Admiral Marks, Admiral Cleeteus, the Command AI, Grayseth, and Andram to meet me on the Clan Protector immediately.”

  Commander Malen nodded and immediately contacted the ship’s flight bay.

  As Jeremy prepared to step out of the Command Center, he turned back toward Commander Malen. “Contact the AIs and inform the Command AI the Simulins may know Gaia’s location. Order it to place half of the AI spheres at Condition Two.”

  -

  Jeremy arrived on the Clan Protector to be met by Daelthon as well as Grayseth. For the first time Grayseth didn’t rush to greet Jeremy. His large face had a look of worry and fear.

  “Clan brother,” Grayseth bellowed, his large eyes focusing intently on Jerem
y. “I have just come from the Distant Horizon. The Alton computer specialist Mikow and the Alton scientist Andram bear bad tidings. While technicians were removing a section of a bulkhead to be repaired, they found a metallic device embedded within it. Upon examination it was determined to be of Simulin manufacture.”

  “We thought at first it was a bomb,” said Daelthon as the three turned and began walking through the large flight bay. “However, our munitions expert examined it and determined it was some type of electronic device. We took it to a lab on the ship and Mikow and Andram came down to examine it. They called in a few other human and Alton specialists and determined it was some type of Simulin transmitter.”

  “Was it still functioning?” asked Jeremy.

  He couldn’t believe the bad luck in this happening. Just when he thought they were safe inside the nebula and the defenses around Gaia were finished this had to happen.

  “Andram said it was emitting a weak hyperspace signal,” Daelthon replied. “We set up a jamming frequency so the signal could no longer escape the ship. Since then we’ve managed to disable the transmitter.”

  “So, it’s been transmitting all this time.”

  “I am afraid so, clan brother,” Grayseth said.

  They reached a turbo lift and the three stepped inside. It began moving immediately at a high rate of speed toward the docking port where the exploration dreadnought was connected to the shipyard. While the dreadnought was too large to fit inside any of the Clan Protector’s repair bays, it could still be docked to the station while the fleet repair ships worked on it. In addition, Daelthon’s repair crews could provide some assistance.

  Reaching the docking port, they were ushered inside by the Marine guards at the large open hatch. It didn’t take them long to reach the conference room where the meeting was to be held.